


Kintsugi

by apfelgranate



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Belt-Whipping, Canonical Character Death, Crying During Sex, Daddy Kink, Daddy/boy - Freeform, Daddy/girl, Dirty Talk, Domesticity, Double Anal Penetration, F/M, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Happy Ending, Light Bondage, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Painplay, Past Character Death, Pegging, Post-Movie(s), Reverse Daddy Kink, Rimming, Spanking, Spitroasting, Strap-Ons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-19
Updated: 2013-11-19
Packaged: 2018-01-01 23:49:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apfelgranate/pseuds/apfelgranate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Herc tries really hard not to be a dirty old man. Mako and Raleigh are having none of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kintsugi

**Author's Note:**

> Kintsugi (金継ぎ, Japanese: golden joinery) refers to the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with a lacquer resin sprinkled with powdered gold.

This is how it started:

Manila, three jaeger teams dropped, two stood up again. Afterwards, they got drunk together, half misery, half celebration. The younger Becket brother looked at him, dragged his gaze down and up Herc's body like greedy hands, didn't bother to hide his lazy smile behind his glass. Herc wasn't looking back. The kid could've been his son, for fuck's sake, too young and cocky and still infuriatingly polite. Herc wasn't looking, but it had been months since he’d been fucked, and Raleigh Becket was shamelessly gorgeous, and his brain managed to turn _don't look_ into _touch, don't look too closely_.

"I'm practically old enough to be your father," Herc said because he had to, except he had one hand already edged underneath Raleigh's shirt, and the kid slotted between his thighs with a grin, pushed Herc's hand higher.

"Makes it kinda hot, sir. And I'm legal, if you're wonderin'."

Herc was drunk, sort of. So was Raleigh. But not enough to stop. Daks and briefs got pushed halfway down to their knees, bodies warm and sticking with sweat lined up against the wall of the hotel's bathroom.

"Let me, just let me," Raleigh whispered, spat into his palm and _fuck_ , he had broad hands, nice fingers (Herc had noticed them before, when he hadn't been looking, how they had curled around the glass of Scotch, and he hadn't wondered how they'd feel, sliding—), wrapped his hand round both their cocks, messy and so so _good_.

Herc made a terrible, aching sort of noise, and Raleigh went still, looked up at him. "You okay, sir?"

"Y-yeah. Keep going, fuck—" Herc grabbed the kid by the neck, dragged him in for a haphazard kiss, wanted to get stubble-burn all over those baby-soft cheeks. Raleigh was an enthusiastic kisser, sloppy, and Herc's body went boneless long before he came, shaking with it and barely holding on to the kid's shoulders, who whimpered and followed right after.

-|-|-

Well. It really starts like this:

"Let me take that," Mako says, soft but firm. Herc doesn't let go of the bottle, exactly, but he doesn't fight her when she pries it from his stiff fingers. She empties it out in the toilet, finds the rest of his stash and does the same. She leaves the painkillers for his arm, but checks how many pills are missing. Herc's stupidly glad he hasn't fallen down _that_ rabbit hole yet.

Then, she makes him drink an entire bottle of plain water, watching him silently while he downs the liquid.

"You're not gonna get therapy, are you?" she asks him.

"Don't need it," Herc grunts. He tries to twist the bottle cap back on, but his fingers – shaking, weak things, they don't obey him – slip, and both bottle and cap go clattering to the floor. Neither of them bends down to pick them up again. Max doesn't stir from where he's curled up at the foot of Herc's bed, asleep.

"Herc."

For a moment, it's like Stacker's in the room with them, and Herc's head snaps up. She's never called him that before. Mako looks dead-tired, her eyes are edged with red, the skin underneath dark, like she's been crying, like she's been running on fumes for far too long. It's been two weeks since the breach was closed. Herc feels a bitter sting of guilt, one that doesn't get drowned underneath his grief. It's so easy to forget that he's not the only one who lost somebody that day.

"You need _something_ ," she says. "And drinking yourself to death is not it."

Herc needs for Chuck's scent to stop fading from his pillows. He doesn't think he manages to glare at her, too raw on the inside, scratched thin until he thinks all his anguish and sorrow and guilt will come tumbling out at the slightest touch. She doesn't touch him, doesn’t hit him. (But oh, does he wish for it, for a sharp hand to break him open.)

"I'll be back, all right?" She rises from her chair, moves towards the door.

"You don't need to bother," Herc mutters, looking down at the dropped bottle and cap, looking at Max. Suddenly she's right in front of him, grabbing his face with both hands, and he doesn't break apart under the touch. Wishes he could.

"Do you think Chuck would have wanted this?" she hisses, eyes dark. "Do you think sensei would? They _died_ so we could _live_ , and you…!"

Herc can feel tears burn in the corners of his eyes, a lump his throat. "I'm not—Mako—"

She lets him go as if burned, staggers back.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't—shouldn't have…" She goes quiet, and they stare at each other, both of them wounded and still bleeding. He thinks her wounds are scabbing over already, but his haven't, they're so far from healing, so very far, and he doesn't know where he finds the strength to ask, "When will you be back?"

(Maybe something did break under her touch.)

"Tomorrow. Or the day after, but I. I'll be back tomorrow," she says.

"Okay," Herc says, the word raw and wet when it climbs from his throat. "Okay."

-|-|-

The next time, Mako shows up with Raleigh in tow. They've brought lunch and tea and a few  juice boxes from the mess hall, and insinuate themselves into Herc's room like they belong there, spreading the food out on the bed and the desk. He ends up sitting on one end of his bed with his legs crossed in front of him to make room for the trays, while Mako sits on the chair, her boots on the floor and her feet propped up on the bed's metal frame. Raleigh's made himself comfortable at the other end of the bed, though his legs are hanging off on either side.

Herc manages to keep all the food down even though he eats too much, and afterwards  he reclines against the wall to ease the pressure on his stomach. Max is lying on his side, tongue blissfully lolling from his mouth, and Herc's pretty sure Mako sneaked him half a steak. Raleigh's wheedling her into giving him another bite of her blue jello, to which she concedes with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. Herc feels warmth spreading in his chest, and he turns his gaze down at his emptied plate.

"Thanks," he says quietly. It's the first words he's said since he complained that they were going to get food stains on his bed more than half an hour ago. "Both of you. For—for…"

"Anytime." The reply comes almost in unison, and Herc finds the kids smiling at each other, small and a little secretive, when he looks up. The expressions don't disappear when they’re directed at him.

It turns into a habit, after that. First the lunches, then the comments of, "With respect, sir, you need a shave," and, "A shower wouldn't hurt, either." They don't say anything when they find new liquor bottles (It happens twice, after the really bad nights), they just empty them out. When the press tries to descend on him they find excuses to hustle him away. They leave footprints and crumbs and rumpled sheets behind after every lunch, and dinner. And Herc manages to leave his room of his own volition most days.

One day, the jello is green. When Mako gets some on her wrist, Raleigh simply leans over and licks it off. Slowly. Herc is less surprised than he expected – he didn't think they'd fall into bed that quickly, but when he remembers how strong their first drift was…

He coughs pointedly, wordlessly, and tries not to let the swiftly rising memories of Manila show on his face. He's not past grieving, still wakes in the night with his throat closed up and tears just waiting to fall, but… it seems he's not past wanting, either.

-|-|-

During the first week after the breach was closed, Herc ran on autopilot. He got up, fed Max, put on his clothes and did what had to be done, because with Stacker gone, people were looking to him. He doesn't even remember, now, how many press conferences and meetings with the heads of the PPDC there were. He attended because somebody had to, and he was Herc Hansen, Marshal.

Nobody had to know he didn't sleep, or that when he did, it was via liberal consumption of liquor.

Then came the second week, and they didn't need _him_ , specifically, anymore. Then a pit opened up under him, and he was so, so tired. He didn't try to hold on.

At the start of the third week, Mako emptied his entire stash of alcohol into the toilet.

And midway through the fifth…

-|-|-

This is how it happens:

Herc's showering, and he can hear Mako and Raleigh talking indistinctly on the other side of the bathroom door. He'd grumbled something about not needing two fucking babysitters to take a shower, but not enough to actually make them leave. He never complains enough to make them leave. He knows they will on their own one day, and that's...when he….

Thinking about it scares him.

They grow abruptly quiet when he exits the bathroom, sharing an almost guilty look between them.

"You do know it's rude to slander someone when they're just one room over," he mutters without heat, smiling slightly, and settles down on the bed next to Mako to put on his socks and boots again. Only silence greets him. He glances up, only to see Raleigh sitting turned away from him and Mako, fussing with something on the desk.

"Raleigh told me about Manila."

It takes a moment for the words to sink in, and then Herc almost swallows his tongue. He glares at Raleigh's back, sees his pinking neck, but the kid doesn't turn, like he didn't hear what Mako said. And Mako. Mako's looking at him, with something in her eyes he's rarely seen and never in _her_ face. (In Angela's face, sometimes. Dark, blazing eyes above the shadow of a smile.)

Herc's pulse staggers, blood heating his face and neck, he swallows heavily. Mako's gaze dips down to his throat, catches on his mouth on the way back up. Her hands are folded in her lap, but her shoulders are loose and her legs sprawled open.

"I'd like to kiss you," she tells him, gently, like he's a scared animal who will spook at a loud noise. Herc looks at the curve of her legs, draped out over the edge of the bed, easy, like Raleigh's were six years ago, and god, she's as old as the Becket boy was back then, give or take a few months. He can't do this.

He can't bring himself to say no, either.

"Did this come through the Drift?" He's asking both of them, really, because he knows more than he'd like to about someone else's desires taking up residence inside your head. "Becket, did you push this on her?"

Raleigh finally turns around, something hard-edged around his mouth.

"No. That's not me. I told her after—"

"It's all me," Mako says, calmly. Adds, "Sasha's told me some things, too."

Sasha. Herc deflates, but he can feel his blush deepen. It's not exactly a secret (wasn't a secret) that the Russians often invited a third person into their bed; and Herc's had the pleasure of being that third person more than once. The thought that Mako _knows_ —and that in knowing it she _wants_ …

"You never saw me looking?" she asks, and sounds genuinely curious.

"I. I didn't think you were… not like that."

She raises her hand to lay it along the line of his jaw, leans in – slowly, giving him time to pull away. He doesn't. Her gaze flicks down to his mouth again.

"I'd _really_ like to kiss you."

Their noses are almost touching, and Herc is an old, hurting man, his strength and will buried at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Mako waits for him to close the distance, but then she pushes in, and it's—slow. Deep. Intent. Like somebody waiting for the click of a vault lock. It makes Herc a bit light-headed, being kissed like that. He sighs when she pulls away, just far enough that a mere sliver of hot air separates their mouths, her nose still nudged against his. Her hand is like a brand on his neck, searing.

"Mako," he rasps, broken and needy, "Kid, you're—"

"Do you want me to stop?"

Herc wants…wants Chuck to be alive, and Stacker, and for the goddamn kaiju to never have shown their ugly mugs in this world. He wants so many things.

"…No. No, don't stop."

Mako smiles, small and pleased. Two minutes later, she's found the spot under his right ear where a bite makes his knees go weak. Five minutes after that, she's got him laid out on the bed, on his side so his broken arm can rest on his waist. Raleigh's weight is dipping the edge of the mattress where he sits at Herc's back, leaning over him. They drag Herc's slacks down, then his briefs, and Raleigh slides his hand carefully down to cup Herc's dick, gets it firmed up a little further. His hand's just as broad as Herc remembers.

"Sasha told me," Mako says, bites her lip, cheeks pink, "she said, said you like getting fingered."

Herc makes a soft noise in his chest.

"Y-yeah," he says. He doesn't say, 'Like' is a bit of an understatement.

"I want to," she whispers, nudges her fingers down between his thighs. "Raleigh, too."

"Both of you?" It comes out a little shaky, because his chest feels too small suddenly, because blood fattens his cock almost painfully, because arousal roars to life like a wild thing deep in his belly.

"Yes? If that's—"

" _Yes_. God yes, please."

Raleigh produces lube from somewhere, meaning they must have planned this, the little shits—

Herc groans like he's been stabbed when the first wet finger breaches him and unerringly finds its target; he thinks it belongs to Mako but he can't think beyond the stretch and the pressure and the pleasure that's lighting up his spine, it's been far too fucking long, he's never managed this angle on his own, there's not enough air in the _world_ to fill his gasping lungs.

A second finger, a third and a fourth, and he sobs into the sheets as they both twist them deeper. Gasps, "Please please _please_ —"

"What d'you need, sir?" Raleigh asks, voice gone gravelly.

"Don't. Shit, don't call me that."

"Then what?" Mako asks, right into the hollow of Herc's neck.

"F-fuck if I know, kid," he groans, canting his hips back in a silent plea for more. They get their fingers aligned, four points of white-hot pressure, and he keens with it, fists his good hand into Mako's shirt in a desperate attempt to hold on to _something_.

"Do you—do you need." There's a tremble in Mako's voice, maybe. Maybe Herc's already too far gone to think clearly.

"Do you want to come, Daddy?"

Herc flinches, body trying to jackknife but he can't, not with the kids—with Mako and Raleigh pressed so close, only succeeds in jerking his leg up, up and over Mako's hip, the motion spreading him open, slick fingers sliding deeper, driving a ruined noise from his throat.

They've gone motionless, still, not frozen but… waiting.

"What—what did you say." It's like trying to breathe around hot coals–he misheard, he must have, he shouldn't have greedy fire licking up from deep inside, from where they're touching him.

"Do you want to come, Daddy?" If Mako's voice was ever shaky it isn’t now, and the _shouldn't_ in Herc’s mind dies a swift, fiery death.

"I—g-god…"

"You want us to make you come?" Raleigh ducks down, gets his chin hooked into the curve of Herc's neck and shoulder, lips smearing over the spot where Mako dug her teeth in.

" _Please_ …"

"Please what?"

"Please make daddy come," Herc chokes out, a terrible heat of shame and arousal burning him up from the inside out.

They do. They make him cry out so hard his voice cracks in the middle of it, all four fingers merciless, and maybe he blacks out for a few seconds there, shattered into pieces and put back together with kiln fire still crackling in his seams. He comes with damp tender kisses pushed to his neck, the joining point of his collarbones, the line of his jaw.

"You okay?" Raleigh murmurs, petting Herc's thigh, like his erection isn't pushing hot against the small of Herc's back. Mako is just as hot against his front, her hips keep hitching ever so slightly, like perhaps she's not quite aware she's doing it, and Herc's softening dick aches with the friction in the best way.

"Yeah," he manages after another minute of being peppered with kisses, when he doesn't feel quite as thunderstruck anymore. His heartbeat is heavy in his chest, but he isn't drowning in the roar of his own blood, feels instead like he's...floating. Hollowed out, with no grief to fill him up. God, it's gonna hurt so much once it comes rushing back in, he thinks, it will—

"That's good, that's—we'll clean you up in a minute, I just—Mako, can I, I want to—"

"Yes, fuck, let me just—"

And then Mako's clambering over Herc and Raleigh falls off the bed because it's a fucking single and they're three people, they're probably getting lube and come everywhere and Herc will have to change the bedding again; then Mako fumbles her pants open one-handed, pushes them down and Raleigh buries his head between her legs with a speed that should not be humanly possible, moans falling from both their mouths, and Herc doesn't _care_ about the dirty sheets, or his soiled shirt, or that the dog just watched him have sex.

(Grief is not the only thing that fills Herc up again, as he's watching the kids shudder their way to climax.)

-|-|-

It happens like this, too:

Mako wants to see what they did in Manila.

"Are you...Uh, you gonna call me _daddy_ again?" Herc asks, staggering over the word. Mako's looking a little guilty, and Raleigh rubs at his neck, a terrifyingly cute blush stretching across his cheeks. They're both grinning, though.

"If you want us to."

( _God_ , does Herc want them to.)

Since they woke the dog the first time, the reenactment takes place in hers and Raleigh's quarters. They figure out pretty quickly that pressed close and standing up isn't gonna work this time, not with Herc's still-broken arm in the way. The bed's the next best option, and since Mako and Raleigh apparently managed to sweet-talk resources into getting them a wide one, it's actually pretty comfortable.

Raleigh’s gotten even broader in the shoulders since Manila, his jaw a little squarer. Still feels boyish, though, lying on top of Herc with his erection rubbing against his belly. Kisses just as sloppily, too.

"Let me, Daddy, let me just…" Raleigh spits into his hand, reaches down between their bodies, makes Herc's head roll back and his mouth fall open.

"Fu-fuck, kiddo…"

Raleigh lets out a shaky sigh at that, rolls his hips down against Herc's.

"Daddy," he breathes, buries his head in the crook of Herc's neck and proceeds to suck a hickey into the spot where Mako sunk her teeth less than two days ago. Herc bucks and whines and frays apart at the seams, pleasure building fast and hard in his belly. He manages to drag the boy up for another kiss, one that barely meets the definition, messy and filled with gasps.

Suddenly Raleigh freezes, jerks back and shudders, groans brokenly. Herc's insides squirm at the sound, even more so when he sees Mako nuzzling up the side of Raleigh's neck, her hands settling on his hips.

"Want to fuck you," she whispers, "Want, want to get inside you…"

"Fuck, please," Raleigh gasps, twists his head until she can smear a kiss into the corner of his open mouth, where Herc's lips were just a few moments ago. Both of them look at him then, eyes dark.

"Wanna give Daddy a show?" Raleigh says, softly, his mouth wet and red. Mako hums in agreement, draped along his back, chin hooked over his shoulder, gazing down with that scarcely fettered wildness behind her eyes. "You want that, Daddy?"

Herc can't breathe.

He can only nod.

It's more than obvious the two of them have done this before, often, because there's ease and familiarity in the way they move with each other. And there’s a ravenous anticipation that is more than contagious.

Eventually Mako steps off the bed. Herc can see her move about from the corners of his eyes, pulling a harness over her hips. But then Raleigh’s kissing him again and it becomes difficult to focus on anything else. After a while the bed shifts as she returns and then…

Raleigh makes an almost inhuman noise when Mako pulls him to his knees and breaches him, slow and deliberate, like her fingers were moving inside Herc that first time. Herc's breaths come rapid and flat and he's getting light-headed just watching them, the way Raleigh's mouth goes slack and Mako's eyes fall closed.

"Please tell me," he grits out over the thundering of his heart, breathless and raw and he's not even the one getting fucked. "Please tell Daddy how it feels."

"It's—it's so good," Raleigh breathes, "'S _deep_ , fuck," lips parting wide on a helpless moan, "an' grinding down, l-like—right there oh _jesus_ ," bucking into Mako's thrust, eyes fallen shut, golden lashes on ruddy cheeks and Herc didn't get to see this back in Manila, didn't know how desperately beautiful the boy looks with pleasure riding up his spine.

"Feels bigger than last time," Raleigh gets out between mewls, "fills me up—so much—"

Herc wants to kiss him, wants him to keep talking, wants to get flipped over on his belly and fucked so badly he can almost _feel_ the breadth Raleigh's talking about. But he's stuck; his legs are still caught in his daks just like the boy's are, even if he's wriggled them down to his shins, knees rising on either side of Raleigh's hips. There's space there, between Herc's thighs – but not enough for Raleigh to sink into him, for Mako's thrusts to reach the part of him aching to get pounded. Except…

"How big," Herc breathes, just as Raleigh spits Mako's name, head dropping down to Herc's sternum. His breath is hot and wet, and Herc feels like he's burning under it, chest opening up to make space for all the heat growing in him.

"Don't know—just, 's just so much—oh _god_ …"

His knees slide apart and his entire torso skids into Herc's in an explosion of gasps and abrupt, hot friction, until Mako hauls him up again, and then she reaches past Raleigh's body to grab at Herc's hip.

"Three fingers thick," she gets out, breathlessly, "That what you need to know?"

Raleigh lifts his head and _fuck_ , he's gone red down to his nipples. A hungry grin stretches his mouth, he licks his lips, says, "Want me to— _ah_ … to get yours wet for you?"

Herc's working hand is already on the side of Raleigh's face, forefinger less than an inch from the boy's mouth. He thinks he manages to answer, but maybe it's just a low, desperate sound, ripped loose from his throat as Raleigh sucks the first finger into his mouth. Then the second, the third, and then Herc is wriggling them down into the space between his thighs, crooks and pushes and it's a goddamn poor substitute for what he's really craving but it still drives the air from his lungs in choked pants and—

The way Raleigh and Mako look at him makes his heart skip a beat.

"Daddy," they're saying, and Herc can't even be sure which one of them, or if it's both of them, if ghost-drift is hitting them _now_. "Daddy, will you come for us?"

Their voices are shot, gone rough like splintered rocks, but there's something like awe in there, too, and Herc whines out an affirmative, "Yes," with his breath stolen by his own moans and whimpers, "yes yes _yes_ —" grinds down into his hand, and then Raleigh's mouth opens over his neck and Mako grabs his hips with both hands and he gets come all over himself, again.

This time he cares even less about the mess.

-|-|-

The first time Mako fucks him – the kind of fucking that requires a rubber cock, the kind of fucking where he's lying on his back with her body splaying his legs open because he can't support his weight with his bad arm yet, the kind of fucking that was preceded by a game of rock-paper-scissors over who gets to dick him first – Herc starts to cry about two minutes after she's slid into him.

At first it's just the one sob, because he's simply overwhelmed – he'd forgotten how devastatingly _good_ this could feel – and the kid's crouched over him and she says _Daddy_ with that shaking, awed, hungry voice, and Raleigh echoes her, his hands cradling the sides of Herc's head, dropping wet, feathery kisses on Herc's jaw, the corner of his open mouth.

But it doesn't stick at that one sob; there's another one, and another and another and they're these loud, messy, hiccuping _things_ , punched from his lungs with a force that wracks his entire body, tears start running down his cheeks, and suddenly the kids are staring down at him in utter terror.

Mako withdraws so quickly it stings. Her mouth opens and closes helplessly, but Raleigh's talking enough for the both of them, words tripping over each other in his mouth, "Herc shit are you okay did we hurt you god say something—"

Herc manages nothing but choked, wet whimpers for long, awful seconds, his chest heaving in spasms, until he gets out: "Di-didn't hurt me."

"Herc, you're—you're _crying_ ," Mako breathes, sounding utterly aghast.

"Ha-happened before, j-just—p-please—"

"Herc, can you. Can you calm down? You’re almost—hyperventilating…"

Herc nods jerkily, lets his eyes fall closed on the next shaky sob. Concentrates on the warmth of Raleigh's hands on his neck and shoulders, of Mako's thighs under his. Their breathing is slow and loud, deliberate, and Herc tries to match his, even though his heart wants to thrash in his chest like a wild horse, even though he feels so raw and opened up.

It takes a few minutes, maybe, he can't be sure, but finally his ribs no longer feel like they might crack under the thundering of his heart and the heaving of his lungs. Mako's gingerly stroking his side.

"Hey," Raleigh says when Herc blinks his eyes open again, looking down with relief and worry mixed on his face.

"Hey," Herc croaks, and Raleigh's lips widen into a smile.

"See," he says to Mako, whose mouth is a tight, nervous line, "You didn't break him with your dick."

"Oh my _god_." Mako lets out a choked laugh. A similar noise rattles from Herc and he drags a hand over his face, half trying to hide his smile half trying to keep the hitch of his breath inside. His palm comes away wet.

"F-fuck," he grunts, wipes at his eyes again.

"Herc," Mako says, "are you...are you okay?" She's leaning over him, careful and stilted like she's trying not to touch him. Like she's afraid she'll hurt him if she does.

"Yeah," he rasps, "you didn't—didn't hurt me. Was—i-it was good."

"But—"

"Mako, it was _good_ ," he says, without his voice failing him midway, and the fear fades from her expression. Her body carefully shifts down to rest against his. Herc's cock has gone soft in the interim but the warmth and press of skin, of silicone, has him hardening again.

"Will… will you start crying again if we continue?" Raleigh asks gently, bending down to press a kiss to Herc's temple.

"Probably," Herc admits.

"Okay," Mako murmurs. "Okay," and she's scooting down between his thighs, the strapon nudging up against his hole again. "Want me to fuck you like before, Daddy?"

"Yes—fuck, please, _yes_ ," Herc gasps, his hips lifting eagerly.

Mako grabs his legs. Sinks deep in one slide so he cries out. His hands fly up to find purchase on anything; one slings over the back of Raleigh's neck, the other curls round his wrist on the way down. The boy's broad hand is cupping his ribcage, stroking him there.

"Here," Raleigh says, turning his wrist in Herc's grip, "pinch me if you need us to stop, okay?"

Herc nods jerkily, and Mako begins to move. Almost instantaneously his breath hitches again, wetness gathering in the corners of his eyes. He clenches them shut, tries to breathe through it, but Mako is just—he can't think around how much she fills him up. Can't think when every thrust is like white-hot pleasure being pushed inside him, can't _not_ cry out, and sob, and beg for yet more.

It's like being taken apart. Bit by bit by bit, until the only part of him that remains is the one that loves to get pounded. And even that is fraying open, unravelling with each of Mako's thrusts, tears running freely. It's too much to bear. It'll never be enough.

"I think Daddy wants it harder," Raleigh whispers. Herc arches like someone lightning-struck, clenches up, gasps out, "Yes, more, please more—"

Mako stutters out a ragged noise and rams deep, holds there, trembling. Her fingers dig into his thighs, his legs thrown over her shoulders. Herc whines, writhes, tries to get her to move, to just fuck him, for the love of god, please, _anything_.

"Do you—you want him?" Mako pants, looking down at him, one of her hands reaching out for Raleigh. "Want his cock?"

The blood roars in Herc's ears, drowns out even the crashing beat of his heart. He must have managed a _yes_ , because she reaches over, grabs Raleigh's chin, kisses him soundly. Says, "Be a good boy for daddy and give him your cock, yeah?" and both Raleigh and Herc let out the same high, breathy moan.

And then the kid scoots forward, shifts until his knees dip the bed on either side of Herc's head, and his cock points down at Herc's mouth, nudges against his lips. Herc opens up eagerly, half on a gasp. Mako hitches into him, moving again. Softer then before. Deeper, too.

Raleigh's dick fills his mouth like it was made for it, pushes in slow, hot and thick. Herc groans around it, swallows, his chest hitching with sobs that have nowhere to go. Raleigh moans above him, stammers out praise and curses, until Mako kisses them from his mouth. The words turn incoherent, after that.

They fuck him slow, and relentless, and so very deeply. Fill him up from both ends until he can barely breathe, until his entire body feels like it's been set alight, consumed by flames. He's still crying, maybe. He can't tell, his eyes always water when he gives head. He's burning up.

The hands on his cock are like an afterthought, tipping him from the cliff to crash into the waves. They fuck him through the waves, too. He stains his chest and belly in surges. Each one drawn-out agony, and bliss, and he can't breathe.

Raleigh withdraws in little jerks of his hips, spills all over Herc's collarbones. Mako remains inside him longer, but still leaves him empty all too soon.

For the rest of the night, though… they stay.

-|-|-

Mako and Raleigh are trying to have a conversation about safewords with him, and Herc can barely focus on them. It's a necessary conversation, one they should have had before ever falling into bed, but he...

Last night, he dreamed that he walked into the sea and never turned around.

He doesn't want to die. He thinks? But in the dream… when the waters closed above his head, he felt peaceful. Then he woke up, and gasped for air until his throat hurt.

"…Herc?"

"Herc."

"Hey, Marshal. _Hercules_."

Herc blinks.

"…What?"

"You didn't answer for two minutes," Raleigh says. "Are you alright?"

"I'm—" Herc swallows, looks down at his hands, stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. The three of them, they're out on the tarmac, walking Max. It's late March already, but the winds are still biting cold. Mako's holding Max' leash now, and Herc is glad for it – the leather burns his palm when he holds it, and it feels a little like divine punishment.

"Not really," he mumbles, hoping they'll let it drop. They've got more than enough of their own shit to deal with, Mako especially, and they don't need an old man's suicidal issues on their shoulders too.

"I told you about the grief counselor, didn't I," Mako says after a moment, only it's not a question as much as a none-too-subtle hint. "She's very good."

"Tendo's told me all about it. 'S not exactly my thing." Herc tries unsuccessfully to disappear between his hunched shoulders as Raleigh nudges close to his side and back, and Mako shifts closer as well, and together they cocoon him in a haphazard little bubble of warmth, Max twining between their legs, his tail wagging with exitement.

"There's people…" Herc mutters, glancing at the few individuals in the distance who are also braving the shitty weather. But when the kids wrap their arms around him and each other, he doesn't protest.

"Fuck 'em," Raleigh comments blithely, and buries his face in the crook of Herc's neck.

"You got no problem with everyone thinking I'm a dirty old man taking advantage of two impressionable youths?"

"Not really, no."

Mako laughs dryly. "You're changing the subject. And you sort of are. I mean—a dirty old man. Not that you're taking advantage." She curses softly in Japanese, and Herc's mouth stretches into a smile without his permission. He briefly considers wriggling his arms free in order to return the embrace, but there's something terrifyingly comforting about simply being held, so he doesn't, just stands there sandwiched between Mako and Raleigh, out on the tarmac where anyone could see.

This feels peaceful, too, he realizes after a few minutes. Even with the cold, the howling wind and the ocean roaring below them. Peaceful, and warm in ways reaching deeper than mere temperature.

"Next time, you could." Herc's throat is suddenly dry, and he swallows heavily, licks his cracked lips. "Could you…"

He closes his eyes, lets his head fall forward onto Mako's shoulder. Feels both of them shift, ever closer, their breath warm on the side of his neck, his cheek, his ear. He shivers, and it's not because of the wind sneaking in through the crevices of his clothing to nip at his skin.

"We're listening."

"What do you want?"

 _What do you want_ , they always ask him, never _what do you need_. He's not sure if it's because they've caught on that Herc Hansen has no idea what he needs, or that even if he did, he wouldn't know how to ask for it. Wanting, though… he's never unlearned how to do that.

"Next time, I—I want you both in me," he whispers raggedly. "At the same time."

-|-|-

"I'm not going on the bottom," Mako says firmly. "You two would crush me."

Herc has to concede that that is a real possibility. All three of them seem to have a habit of collapsing, at least momentarily, when they come. Raleigh simply shrugs, grinning, and settles down onto his back on the bed. Mako throws him a condom, finishes getting undressed. Herc's already naked, sitting on the bed next to Raleigh. He's been hard ever since the door locked.

"Hey," Raleigh murmurs, after he's done fiddling with the condom, slides one hand over Herc's back, leans in to kiss his shoulder. "You nervous?"

"No," Herc says quietly, turns to him. Glances down to see Raleigh's cock lying ruddy and thick between his thighs. Thinking about it inside him sends heat tingling through him. He's dying to get dicked, and his heart's beating fast with it. Raleigh keeps glancing at his mouth.

"You don't have to wait for me with the kissing, you do know that," Mako says. And, well. Raleigh drags him in with a laugh and they tangle on the bed. His mouth is sweet and open and hungry underneath Herc's, and one of the kid's hands is skirting down his back to grope at his ass. Herc lets out an involuntary greedy sound. Raleigh chases after it, nudges his fingers against his hole. The bed dips when Mako settles behind them, and then she flops down on Herc's back for a kiss from both of them – it takes a bit of twisting, but they manage it. She draws away again, dragging her mouth down Herc's spine in a hot smear. He arches into it, shuddering. His skin tingles all over.

There's the snap of gloves and the pop-cap sound of lube, and then they're opening him up, slowly. One, two, three fingers, and another one, two, three. Herc's a mess by the end of it, clutching at Raleigh's shoulders and what little of the sheet he can grasp. He's been begging for what feels like entire _minutes_.

"O-okay," Raleigh stutters out eventually, withdraws his fingers just as Mako's doing the same, and Herc keens a little with the loss, deep in his throat. "Think you're ready, you can—can sit on my cock now, Daddy, here, like—like this…"

Herc's arm is out of its cast, has been for a few days. He can use it, a bit, but putting any significant amount of his weight on it is so far out the realm of possibility that it hurts just thinking about it. So when he finally, _finally_ slides down onto Raleigh's dick, it's with his back to him, facing Mako. Mako, who's watching him with such a hunger in her eyes; it twists his insides into knots in anticipation.

"Oh god, Daddy, _fuck_ ," Raleigh bites out, his voice cracking at the end of it. Herc can't breathe for a moment as he settles fully, his ass meeting Raleigh's hipbones. He feels so full already, and yet, and _yet_...still half empty. It's fucking with him.

Raleigh feels different inside him than Mako did, warmer, more yielding. But no less overwhelming. Herc falls back against Raleigh's chest with a strangled curse, and stars go off behind his eyes, the tip of the kid's cock digging perfectly over his prostate. Raleigh catches him easily, of course he does. Spits a few more curses of his own, nuzzles messily into the side of Herc's neck. Folds his hands over Herc's thighs and opens him up for Mako's eyes and hands and cock, and something in Herc's chest skips violently sideways.

Mako kneels in between both their splayed thighs, wearing harness and strapon, and a slight blush reaches down to her chest. She spreads Herc's legs a little wider, scoots closer. Herc's heartbeat trips and races, his breath jerky. Raleigh pets his chest, kisses his ear, but his heart's jackrabbiting, too. Herc can feel it against his back.

"Here," Mako breathes, smearing more lube over Herc's hole and Raleigh's dick, and then the slick tip of her strapon prods against them, where...where Herc's already stretched open, but not enough, not enough.

"Please," Herc rasps.

"You want it?"

"Yes please please fuck jesus god _oh god—_ "

_It's too much._

_No—no, it's not_. It's just right—it's goddamn perfect, with the ache and the sting and their noises and their hands, all over him, inside him. Herc's crying again.

They're ghost-drifting, they have to be. There's no way they could move like this— _there's no way_.

Herc is nigh delirious with the stretch, and the fullness, and the pressure, and the friction. Going out of his mind with it. There's sound climbing from his throat. Words, maybe. Babbled nonsense. Distressed, frantic noises, like a wounded animal.

Mako scrapes her teeth over his chest. Maybe. Maybe it's Raleigh's fingernails, he can't tell. It all ends up as sensation. Glowing bright and sharp, and eating him alive. His pleasure's turned into a white-molten _thing_ between his legs, grown into his chest and limbs and head. He can't… can't think.

_It's too much._

_No, it's not_.

The world explodes into black.

When he comes to, he’s lying on his side with Mako and Raleigh curled around him, still inside him. Their expressions are worried—but he’s still figuring out how to breathe again so he only manages a soft, small noise that could have been _Kids_ , and the tense lines in their faces melt into relieved smiles.

"You had us a little worried there, old man," Raleigh murmurs and Mako slides a kiss against his lips. Herc’s mouth goes nigh slack, lets out a trembling moan that she licks right out of him. He can’t stop shaking. They’re shaking, too, he realizes. Raleigh’s still hard inside him, and Mako’s belly is quivering where it’s pressed up against his.

“Y’can,” he breathes, “can move. Wanna feel it…”

They do, sliding into movement with deep exhales. It drives low ache and sparks into Herc’s oversensitive body, and it’s… it’s raw, and sweet. Feels like touching fresh pink skin for the first time when they eventually come in him.

Afterwards they settle down on either side of him, their arms and legs thrown over his body. Mako mutters a low curse and gets up again to get rid of the strap-on, before she curls up against him and Raleigh again. The blanket’s too small. The bed, too.

“You don’t have to…” Herc starts, stops. Doesn’t know how to finish that sentence.

"It's okay," Mako says, stifling a yawn. "We're staying. You can go to sleep."

-|-|-

Raleigh loves going down on people, Herc learns soon afterwards. He thought that maybe it was just with Mako, but it's not. Jesus fucking _god_ , is it not.

Mako's hand is in Raleigh's hair, messing it up even worse than usual. She pushes his head down between Herc's legs, makes him choke on Herc's dick, except...except. Raleigh stays down when she lets him go, and Herc can feel him gag around his cock, the hot wet crush of his throat. Herc's choking, too. Choking on nothing but air and the thick heat of pleasure burning at the base of his spine, that reaches up inside his chest to eat at his lungs.

Beforehand, he and Raleigh spent half an hour eating Mako out. Raleigh kept nosing into Herc's space, slipped him his tongue more often than not before he licked back inside Mako. Noisily. They still made her come four times, and each time her hands dug into their skulls like she wanted to keep some of the skin. Then the kids tied his hands to the top of the bed, stretched him out like that. Herc's face is still sticky. Raleigh's, too, and the thought that the boy's getting _her_ slick all over the insides of Herc’s thighs and cock right now makes his head spin.

Raleigh's loud now, too, even with a mouthful of cock. He keeps making these wet, choked noises, muffled groans that vibrate right into Herc's dick, his hands are bruise-tight on Herc's hips to keep him from thrashing and Herc is going to come, he's going to come, he's going to—

Raleigh pulls off his dick with a wet smack. Then he pulls back and manhandles Herc onto his belly, and up onto his knees and elbows. The rope tying him to the headboard is just loose enough to permit the motion. Herc pants in surprise, and in desperation, his cock begging for a touch, for _anything_. He'd take a slap at this point.

Suddenly Mako is at his shoulder, gently curls her fingers over the nape of his neck and leans in, kisses his temple. It feels like embers alighting on his skin. Herc gulps down a plaintive cry, mostly. It comes out hitched, in pieces.

"K-kid—"

She shushes him, kisses the corner of his gasping mouth, bites the edge of his jaw.

"I want to eat you out," Raleigh says.

"Raleigh wants to eat you out," Mako says, almost synchronous. _God_ , they're ghosting again.

Raleigh's mouth descends on the small of his back, into the dip right above the cleft of his buttocks, and Mako's mouth settles in the spot under his ear, where he cracks the easiest. They nip him at the same time, lick, nuzzle. Nip again.

"Green, Daddy?" they ask. It's like an echo. Reverberates under Herc's skin, down into his bones.

He garbles out something. Noise. Begging. _Please, yes, green_.

Mako slaps his face. Lightly, but enough to smart for a split-second.

"Come on," she whispers. "Use your grown-up words, Daddy."

"Guh-green, _green_ , fuck—"

Raleigh's mouth is like a damn furnace. The boy licks into him, retreats, does it again, teasing. Drags his teeth along the skin, just barely touching. Mako bites him under the ear, Raleigh nudges his tongue inside, and Herc almost collapses. Gasps out helpless, overwhelmed breaths which stumble over each other in his mouth.

He's done this once before – had it done to him – and that wasn't, wasn't like _this_. Close, overpowering, unbearable. Mako takes his face into her hands, turns it to kiss him, to fuck her tongue into his mouth. It feels like they're ghosting, still. They sweep in at the same time, teasing, yet relentless; withdraw again, make him chase after with a whimper. He's leaking onto the sheets, the tip of his cock slides over the fabric every so often, rough catch-and-drag friction. That makes him whimper, too.

Then Raleigh pushes two fingers in beside his tongue, spit-slick, curls them down. Herc moans against Mako's mouth, a shattered thing of a breath. Comes with his spine arching, his legs giving out underneath him.

The kids hold him, half-carry him down until he lies flat against the sheets. Untie his hands, slot up against him from the side and from behind. Raleigh's dick is wet and still hard, dragging along Herc's thighs and coming to rest between his buttocks. Herc's heart thunders in his chest, calms so slowly, his breath bursting out in pants. He manages a _yes_ in there, somewhere, because Raleigh curls his hips down and humps into him, slides his dick in the hot spit-wet space behind Herc’s balls. He can feel Mako move slightly, reach down maybe—Raleigh groans like he's wounded, jerks, shudders, mewls and yeah, she got her fingers into him. Two, by the sound of it, Herc thinks, and then Raleigh's spunk hits the skin in front of his hole, warm, dripping down down down.

 _Fuck_. In five minutes time, that would be mildly disgusting. Now, Herc's dick tries valiantly to get hard again.

" _God_ …"

They nuzzle into his neck, both of them. Raleigh's lying on top of him, heavy and warm, and Mako's half on top of him, too. Part of Herc wants to stay like that for at least the next century.

-|-|-

Six months after the breach is closed finds Herc face down ass up in an expensive hotel room in Washington, DC. It's a victory tour, months after the fact. Or something. There were reasons for it, new funding among them. He can't bother to remember them now.

Mako tied his hands behind his back, so his shoulders and face are smushed to the mattress. He can hear her moving around behind him, the soft shuffle of her bare feet over the plush carpet. Raleigh's not here, some god-awful scheduling cock-up, delayed flight or whatever, but it doesn't matter. Mako's got a plan. She always does.

(She asked at the damn front desk how the sound absorption of their room was. Herc tried very hard not to go red, but he doesn't think he managed it.)

"Here," she says, and lays down the phone next to Herc's face, speakers up and on loud.

"Hey," comes Raleigh's voice from the earpiece, warm and husky. "How are you guys doing?"

"We're good," Herc murmurs, trying to glance over his shoulder at Mako. She smiles, leans over him. Fuck, she's naked already as well.

"Yeah. Where are you, Raleigh?" she asks. He laughs lightly.

"In a shitty cramped airport bathroom, like you told me."

"I hope you don't have your phone on speaker."

"I don't."

"That's good," Mako says, her voice dropped low, and Herc shivers underneath her.

"You can touch yourself, but don't come alright?" she adds. Raleigh lets out an unsteady breath on the other side of the line. "Okay," he whispers. "Okay."

Herc is almost fully hard already, half from thinking about what Mako is going to do to him, half from thinking about how difficult it'll be for Raleigh (Raleigh, who makes noise during sex like his life depends on it) to keep quiet.

"You ready?" Mako asks him as she pulls back and settles on the end of the bed, right behind him. Herc's throat has gone dry.

"Y-yeah. I'm ready, kiddo." Mako's breathing gets a little louder, too, and she gropes his ass at first, gently, spreads his cheeks open with both hands. Pushes her thumb into the skin right below his hole.

"Want me to spank you here?"

"Please…" Herc's mouth opens against the sheets on a helpless moan.

" _Daddy_ ," Mako says, soft but stern. They talked about this beforehand, of course, about what they wanted to do, but she always makes him ask for it anyway. Herc hates that almost as much as he loves it, the way it twists him up inside with pleasure and opens him up to the soft touches.

"Yes, please spank Daddy there," he gets out with effort. He can hear Raleigh's ragged little breaths all too clearly over the phone, almost like the boy's in the room with them, watching them.

The first slap lands on his left buttock, and it jerks his entire body forward, drives the air from his lungs in a gasp. The second one hits the right cheek, and the third the left again. On the third he cries out. On every one after that, too. Mako's hands may not be as big as Raleigh's, but she’s learned how to maximize their impact, and Herc's spine lights up with the sharp bright pain she inflicts with every impact.

Soon she shoves his knees wider apart, makes his hamstrings ache, and lands the first direct hit on his hole. Herc sobs violently. Tries to get his ass higher, begs and curses. Then Mako spanks him again, again, _again_. Right _. There_.

Everything turns into desperate heaving sobs. He doesn't know when he started crying, dry sobs turning wet, doesn't care, can't, not when she's still laying into him, over and over until she _suddenly_

_just_

_stops._

Herc's legs are shaking—his entire body is shaking, his skin feels like it's burning up. He's so hard it hurts, hurts all over.

"P-please, fu-uck, _kiddo_ , please—" he mewls. Mako kisses the small of his back, slides her hands over the backs of his thighs, up and up over his sore ass. It sends sparks through him, stuttering, stinging, frenzied sparks.

"My hands are sore," she says, kissing his trembling fingers. "Think you can take the belt?"

A whimpery sound comes from the phone, high and sounding like Raleigh's biting down on his fist to stifle it. Mako chuckles, a little breathless herself. Herc's trying to get his tongue to obey him, but it won't even manage a _yes_ now.

"I want to make you scream, Daddy," she whispers and Herc's tongue untangles, spits, "Y-yes _yes_ ," like he's dying for it, and Raleigh makes another noise and Mako exhales slow and deliberate. And then she scratches her fingernails over Herc's ass as she pulls away, making him mewl all over again.

She drags the belt – folded in the middle, a slim loop, it feels like – up between his legs first. Along his cock and over his balls and he flinches away from the touch, it's too much, too much. She grabs him the hip, drags him back, clicks her tongue. Flicks the belt against his cock, lightly. It's enough to make him whine in distress. To make him writhe helplessly.

Then she lays into him with the belt, and Herc starts screaming into the sheets. The strikes fall on his thighs, on his ass, on his hole, and Herc feels like he's flying. No, not flying— _falling_. Like he's crashing through the atmosphere at terminal velocity. Like he caught fire long ago and he's burning to ash.

When Mako presses down abruptly on top of his tied hands, sends him into the mattress with his entire body, whips the belt down to hit him right between his cheeks… it's like making ground contact, finally.

Crash, and burn burn _burn—_

And smoke, and ruins.

The sheets underneath Herc's face are wet with spit and tears. He's still sobbing when the world gains color and sound again, and he notices only distantly that Mako's untied his wrists.

She fits herself over his back, warm and sweat-sticky and trembling, chafing against his raw skin. She pets along his sides until his breath stops hitching quite so harshly. Herc feels slick rubber nudge against his hole, and a whole new shudder runs through him, makes him tilt his hips up.

Mako lets out a shuddery breath, her mouth opening hot and wet over the vertebrae of his neck. She fumbles one of her hands down between their bodies, opens him up inch by inch with her cock. It hurts. The strap-on is not very big, but his ass is bruised all over, and she didn't prep him, and it aches.

It aches, and it feels better than anything he's felt in the past days spent locked into a plane, trains, stuffy conference rooms full of suits-and-ties, crowded halls full of nosy press.

Herc whimpers in blissful torment as Mako ruts into him, as she has him burning up from the inside this time.

"Herc," whispers Raleigh over the phone, brokenly, barely audible. " _Daddy_. _Mako_."

Mako comes after what feels like hours, grinding deep inside him and holding there. She sighs afterwards, long and hitching with aftershocks. Rolls from Herc's back and kisses him messily. Herc barely manages to return it.

"You still there, Raleigh?" Mako pants. She's ruddy in the cheeks and smiling, and Herc's lungs feel a little too small.

"I hate you two so much right now," Raleigh says, breathy and pained and a weak smile tugs at Herc's lips as Mako laughs, half a groan.

"No, you don't," she says. She smirks at Herc, small and gleeful. "When you get here, I'm going to tie Daddy here up and make him watch while I take you apart. How does that sound?"

Herc manages only a wordless nod, while for a long moment, nothing but soft static comes from the phone. Then, Raleigh groans, muffled.

"That—that sounds really, really good, Mako."

"I thought so… You can come now," she adds quietly, and Herc can hear the rasp of a zipper, and then frantic, choked gasps and the low sound of flesh on wet flesh. Eventually, Raleigh gets out, "F-fuck, I gotta go. I think somebody called maintenance because the stall's been locked for so long…"

Mako giggles a little, doesn't bother smothering it in her hand, and Herc finds himself grinning with her.

"We will see you tomorrow," she says and heaves herself up on one arm as Raleigh says his goodbye. Herc manages a mostly incoherent one as well, and sighs when she strokes a hand down his spine.

"Stay here, I'll just get the salves…"

"'M not moving," Herc mutters, drained and exhausted and wounded and fiercely happy underneath it all. He doesn't think he'll ever get used to that.

Mako kisses the small of his back again, and he can feel her smile against his skin.

-|-|-

This is how…

Sixteen months after the breach was closed, Mako and Raleigh get a house in New Zealand together. It's more of a farm, really. Tendo sends over a criminally expensive bottle of wine, and a big folder of tech specs for possible new jaeger designs. Herc shows up in person, with Max and an old beaten-up suitcase in tow. They have a guestroom, a big one. He's not staying long, he says, he's just...

 _I have nowhere else to go_ , he doesn't say.

Sure sure, they say.

They christen the bed and the floor in the master bedroom first, and technically the side table, too. The next night it's the couch in the living room, and then the bed in the guestroom, and somewhere in between it’s also the floor-length mirror in the hallway that came with the house.

None of them ever really learned to cook properly, so breakfast is burnt, lumpy pancakes, and then burnt, runny waffles, and then they spend an entire afternoon watching food network. Afterwards dinner is mostly edible.

Max whines in the night sometimes, and Herc crawls out of bed (out from underneath Mako and Raleigh, usually, the fucking octopuses) to sit with him out on the patio, huddled in a blanket and staring up at the stars. After a week, Mako and Raleigh show up outside on those nights, too.

Nineteen months after the breach was closed, Mako suggests they stop calling it the guestroom, and Raleigh mentions they could also add a 'H. Hansen' sticker to their address plate out front. If, you know, Herc is okay with that. Herc makes a terrible noise deep inside his chest and tries to decline, but what comes crawling from his throat instead is, "I'd… I'd like that."

Nineteen months and three weeks after the breach was closed, Tendo’s letters full of possible jaeger designs, current plans of the PPDC, and occasional vacation photos are addressed to 'Mrs., Mr. & Mr. Mori'. Somehow they still end up on their doorstep.

Twenty months after the breach was closed, Raleigh brings home not one but _three_ golden retriever puppies. Max is ecstatic. Mako rolls her eyes but she's smiling. Herc's heart tries its best to climb into his throat.

Twenty-two months and eighteen days after the breach was closed, Herc stops measuring the passage of time like that.

 

-| fin |-

**Author's Note:**

> There's also an accompanying illustration for this fic at my tumblr, [here](http://apfelgranate.tumblr.com/post/67507236131/kintsugi-ao3-kintsugi-japanese-golden).


End file.
